BTG Government Information Legislative History and Beyond

7/28/2019 BTG Government Information Legislative History and Beyond

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GOVERNMENT INFORMATION:

LEGISLATIVE HISTORYANDBEYOND

Bridge the Gap

Andrew Winston

March 26, 2013


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I. Federal Legislative History


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What is legislative history?

The documents that are produced inthe process of enacting legislation.

These documents are used to gain insighton the background and events leading toa statutes enactment

Thus potentially giving insight to the intentbehind the statute


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Why do we care?

Legislative histories help whendetermining the intent of the

Congress at the time a statutewas proposed or enacted.

So?

Courts may look to this intent to helpinterpret an ambiguous statute.


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A Not-At-All-Confusing Diagram of theLegislative Process


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Another View


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Legislative Paper Trail

Bills different versions suggest changes as result of

deliberations or compromise

Comm. hearings interested partiesmake statements

Comm. prints background research;staffterm paper

Comm. reports analysis of bill andrecommendation


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Legislative Paper Trail (cont.)

Floor debates not generally informativebut can reflect views of key players

Conference reports the compromisesworked out between the differentchambers highly significant

Enrolled act what is sent to theexecutive

Signing statement or veto statement why the executive acted the way s/he did


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Federal Legislative Materials--Bills

Bills numbered by Congress andby chamber, e.g., H.R. 3055, 94th

Cong. (1976)


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Bills (cont.)

Bills go to committees in both houses, atdifferent times

Bills can go to multiple committees insame house

Committees can receive and amendmultiple bills on same topic

Engrossed bill

official copy of a billthat has passed one chamber


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Citations

Bill Number e.g., H.R. 7152 (88th Cong.)

Public Law Number e.g., P.L. 88-352

Statutes at Large e.g., 23 Stat. 332

U.S. Code Section e.g., 42 U.S.C. 2000a note Popular Name of Act e.g., Civil Rights Act of 1964

Popular Names Table published in United States Code(http://www.heinonline.org/HOL/Page?collection=uscode&handle=hein.uscode/usc2006031&id=271), also a less detailed

version on website of Office of Law Revision Counselhttp://uscode.house.gov/popularnames/popularnames.htm#letterA
http://www.heinonline.org/HOL/Page?collection=uscode&handle=hein.uscode/usc2006031&id=271http://www.heinonline.org/HOL/Page?collection=uscode&handle=hein.uscode/usc2006031&id=271http://uscode.house.gov/popularnames/popularnames.htmhttp://uscode.house.gov/popularnames/popularnames.htmhttp://uscode.house.gov/popularnames/popularnames.htmhttp://uscode.house.gov/popularnames/popularnames.htmhttp://www.heinonline.org/HOL/Page?collection=uscode&handle=hein.uscode/usc2006031&id=271http://www.heinonline.org/HOL/Page?collection=uscode&handle=hein.uscode/usc2006031&id=271


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Finding Citations

U.S. Code


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Finding Citations Continued

Statutes at Large


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Finding Citations Continued

Statutes at Large Since 1975, Public Laws printed in Statutes at Large include a partial

legislative history list at the end of each law:


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Committee Papers

Committee prints by committee

Committee hearings can search by witnessor by topic

Committee reports most influential, section-by-section analysis

Compiled inserial set collection of reports andother documents

Committee reports prepared by committee with

subject matter expertise on bill

Conference report compiled by conference comm.(House and Senate)


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Committee Print


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Committee Hearing


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Committee Report


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Congressional Record

Debates on the House & Senate floors

Sometimes includes material not actually saidon the floor

Daily Digest records business of Congress

Indexed by bill number, speaker, topic

Permanent v. Daily editions note that pagenumbers do not match

Use GPO/FDsys to access PDFs

HeinOnline offers access to PDFs as well


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Presidential documents

Enrolled act the final version sentto President

Presidential statements WeeklyCompilation of PresidentialDocuments; Papers of the President


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Signing Statement


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Executive Orders &Proclamations

Executive orders

Directions to agencies

Proclamations

Policy announcements

Frequently ceremonial

Sometimes substantive (e.g., state ofemergency or implementation ofagreements)


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Finding Executive Orders &Proclamations

Numbered sequentially in separate series

Series does not start over with each President

E.g., Proclamation No. 6763, Exec. Order No.11,609

Look for them in Federal Register

Codified in Title 3 of C.F.R.

Title 3 is the only volume of C.F.R. that is keptpermanently


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Finding Executive Orders &Proclamations (cont.)

Compilation of PresidentialDocuments Formerly compiled into Public Papers of the President

Since 1989, you are referred back to Federal Register

Formerly Weekly, now Daily

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/wcomp/index.html

Lexis Westlaw
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/wcomp/index.htmlhttp://www.gpoaccess.gov/wcomp/index.html


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Presidential Proclamation


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Excerpt from Public Papers of the Presidents of theUnited States (found on FDsys)


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Finding Executive Orders &Proclamations (cont.)

Sometimes reprinted in:

U.S.C.C.A.N. (by year)

U.S. Code, U.S.C.A., U.S.C.S. (byrelated statutory provision)

Statutes at Large (proclamations, but

not executive orders, by year)


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CIS in Paper/Microform

Congressional Information Service 1970-

CIS Indexes/Legislative Histories (inRef.) abstracts of hearings and reports; useful

indexes for finding witnesses, when theytestified, etc.

indexes give microfiche number that youuse to read the original text (generally thisnumber begins with CIS)


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CIS Index in printLists the completelegislative history for agiven actEach type of

document is listed inits own categoryEach document isgiven its own CIS

number to identify itwithin the microfiche


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CIS Listings for Hearings

Hearings are grouped bycommittee so there will beseveral separate sessionsunder one main numberHearings can further be

broken down by thespeakerCIS will list the witnessesthat spoke at each hearing,

in the order they spokeand with their title orassociation, if they haveone


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CIS Online

ProQuest Congressional (formerlyLexis Congressional)

same thing as CIS in paper, but better! can be searched by numerous indexes

provides abstracts in most cases, full-text in some

includes some materials back to 1789 http://congressional.proquest.com/congressio

nal/search/basic/basicsearch
http://congressional.proquest.com/congressional/search/basic/basicsearchhttp://congressional.proquest.com/congressional/search/basic/basicsearchhttp://congressional.proquest.com/congressional/search/basic/basicsearchhttp://congressional.proquest.com/congressional/search/basic/basicsearch


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Compiled legislative histories

Documents collected, thenrepublished or summarized

Often compiled by law firms orexperts

Indexed: Johnson Sources of Compiled

Legislative Histories Reams Federal Legislative Histories

Hein Online U.S. Federal Legislative

History Library


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FDsys

www.gpo.gov/fdsys

HTML & PDF

Great for retrieval Not-so-good for full-text searching

Bills, hearings, prints, reports,

Congressional Record, Presidentialdocuments

Mostly for relatively currentmaterials
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsyshttp://www.gpo.gov/fdsys


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Other Online Sources

Westlaw Next > Browse > Legislative History

Westlaw Classic (under U.S. Federal)

Lexis.com (under Federal Legal)

Legislative Sourcebook(http://www.llsdc.org/sourcebook/)

Thomas (http://thomas.loc.gov/) will bereplaced by Congress.gov

(http://beta.congress.gov/) bills

Congressional Record

some committee reports & other info.
http://www.llsdc.org/sourcebook/http://thomas.loc.gov/http://beta.congress.gov/http://beta.congress.gov/http://thomas.loc.gov/http://www.llsdc.org/sourcebook/


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II. State Legislative History


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State Legislative History

Varies widely from state to state

Search for research guides specific

to legislative history for your state:Example:

Type Florida Legislative History

Research Guide

***You may need to broaden yoursearch to look for state legal researchguides


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Links to Sites for State LegislativeHistory Information

Indiana U. Maurer School of Law:

http://www.law.indiana.edu/lawlibrary/

research/guides/statelegislative/index.shtml

Zimmermans Research Guide onLegislative History

http://law.lexisnexis.com/infopro/zimmermans/disp.aspx?z=1962
http://www.law.indiana.edu/lawlibrary/research/guides/statelegislative/index.shtmlhttp://www.law.indiana.edu/lawlibrary/research/guides/statelegislative/index.shtmlhttp://www.law.indiana.edu/lawlibrary/research/guides/statelegislative/index.shtmlhttp://www.law.indiana.edu/lawlibrary/research/guides/statelegislative/index.shtmlhttp://law.lexisnexis.com/infopro/zimmermans/disp.aspx?z=1962http://law.lexisnexis.com/infopro/zimmermans/disp.aspx?z=1962http://law.lexisnexis.com/infopro/zimmermans/disp.aspx?z=1962http://law.lexisnexis.com/infopro/zimmermans/disp.aspx?z=1962http://law.lexisnexis.com/infopro/zimmermans/disp.aspx?z=1962http://law.lexisnexis.com/infopro/zimmermans/disp.aspx?z=1962http://www.law.indiana.edu/lawlibrary/research/guides/statelegislative/index.shtmlhttp://www.law.indiana.edu/lawlibrary/research/guides/statelegislative/index.shtmlhttp://www.law.indiana.edu/lawlibrary/research/guides/statelegislative/index.shtmlhttp://www.law.indiana.edu/lawlibrary/research/guides/statelegislative/index.shtml


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In Print

State Legislative Sourcebook


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Virginia Legislative History

Much less to work with

Bills (look for changes in language)

House & Senate documents (may betied to particular legislation)

Bill files (generally closed except by

patrons permission) http://leg1.state.va.us

Legislative Studies
http://leg1.state.va.us/http://leg1.state.va.us/


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Vi i i L i l i Hi


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Virginia Legislative HistoryContinued

Richmond Sunlight independent website thattracks legislation like the LIS but also allows forpublic comment www.richmondsunlight.com

Senate and House Journals available in print atour library, Library of Virginia

Legislative Reference Center guide to Virginialegislative history research compiled by Virginia

Division of Legislative Services http://dls.state.va.us/lrc/leghist.htm
http://www.richmondsunlight.com/http://dls.state.va.us/lrc/leghist.htmhttp://dls.state.va.us/lrc/leghist.htmhttp://www.richmondsunlight.com/


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A P ti l St t f


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A Practical Strategy forLegislative History Research

Searching for news articles on legislativedevelopments can provide a quick way topinpoint dates of specific activity, which can then

be used to identify relevant materials inlegislative records.

News articles can sometimes provide legislativebackground that does not make it into the

documents traditionally thought of as legislativehistorybut can be highly relevant.

A P ti l St t


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A Practical StrategyContinued

A public defender was looking for information aboutwhy a 1997 amendment to Va. Code 18.2-67.4,which added ruse to the sexual battery law, wasadopted.

House and Senate journals did not includesubstantive discussion, but they did reveal thesponsor and the date of the amendment.

Searching the Richmond Times-Dispatch using the

name of the sponsor and date uncovered acontemporaneous article discussing a series ofassaults in Charlottesville that prompted theamendment.


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II. Law Library of Congress


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Guide to Law Online

Annotated compilation sources of informationon government and law available online.Includes selected links to useful and reliable

sites for legal information. Portal for hundreds (thousands?) of links to

federal, state, foreign, and internationalresources, including primary sources of

information, as well as academic,governmental, and other commentary.

Available athttp://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide.php.
http://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide.phphttp://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide.php


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III. CRS Reports


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What is CRS?

Sometimes referred to as Congress ThinkTank, the Congressional Research Service, orCRS, is a legislative branch agency within the

Library of Congress. CRS serves members of Congress and their

staffs, providing information, research, experttestimony, and seminars on matters of public

policy, law, legislative procedure, and legislativehistory.

CRS serves only Congress it has no publicmission.


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CRS Areas of Expertise

CRS staff includes hundreds of analysts,attorneys, and information professionals.

Six collaborative research divisions:

American Law

Domestic Social Policy

Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade

Government and Finance Resources, Science, and Industry

Knowledge Services Group


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CRS Reports

From CRS2011 Annual Report:

Reports for Congress, analyses, or studies on specific policy issues ofcongressional legislative interest, are often prepared to address

issues raised in numerous congressional inquiries. Reports clearlydefine issues in legislative contexts. The basic requirements of theseand other CRS written products are relevance, accuracy, objectivity,and nonpartisanship. Analysts define and explain technical terms andconcepts, frame the issues in understandable and timely contexts,and provide appropriate, accurate, and valid quantitative data. Asummary appears on the first page of each report.

Congressional Research Service, Annual Report of theCongressional Research Service of the Library of Congress forFiscal Year 2011 31(2012),http://www.loc.gov/crsinfo/about/crs11_annrpt.pdf
http://www.loc.gov/crsinfo/about/crs11_annrpt.pdfhttp://www.loc.gov/crsinfo/about/crs11_annrpt.pdfhttp://www.loc.gov/crsinfo/about/crs11_annrpt.pdfhttp://www.loc.gov/crsinfo/about/crs11_annrpt.pdf


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Confidential, however . . .

CRS reports are prepared for members of Congress ona confidential basis. Members of Congress, however,may and do release CRS reports to the public.

Whether CRS reports should be released by CRS

directly to the public remains an ongoing debate.

CRS reports may be obtained from a number of freewebsites and some commercial vendors. Remember,though:

- No way to know whether a purported CRS report,particularly one available for free on the web, isauthentic and unaltered.

- Inactive CRS reports, as well as prior releases ofactive reports, may be out of date.


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Selected Free Sources

University of North Texas Digital Library,http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/CRSR/

- Basic and advanced search feature

- Can also browse by subject

Open CRS, https://opencrs.com/- Basic search feature

Federation of American Scientists,http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/index.html

- Basic search feature

-Can also browse by a limited number of subject headings

U.S. Department of State, http://fpc.state.gov/c18185.htm

- Can browse by date, world region, and topic
http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/CRSR/https://opencrs.com/http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/index.htmlhttp://fpc.state.gov/c18185.htmhttp://fpc.state.gov/c18185.htmhttp://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/index.htmlhttps://opencrs.com/http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/CRSR/


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Selected Free Sources (contd)

Dudley Knox Library, Naval Postgraduate School,http://libguides.nps.edu/CRS

- Useful LibGuide on finding CRS reports

- List of links to various free repositories of CRS reports

Law Librarians Society of Washington, D.C.,http://www.llsdc.org/crs-congress/

- Compilation of CRS reports on Congress and itsprocedures

- List of links to other free repositories of CRS reports

Penny Hill Press, http://pennyhill.com/- Must pay to access CRS reports from this vendor, but

- Its website includes a browseable list of CRS reports,which can serve as a resource for discovering titles ofreports that might be available through free sites
http://libguides.nps.edu/CRShttp://www.llsdc.org/crs-congress/http://pennyhill.com/http://pennyhill.com/http://www.llsdc.org/crs-congress/http://www.llsdc.org/crs-congress/http://www.llsdc.org/crs-congress/http://libguides.nps.edu/CRS


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Pay Sources

ProQuest Congressional includes CRSreports from 2004-present

Business Insights: Global

CRS reports appear in results of globalsearches

Browseable by month and year from 1999-present

HeinOnline

-CRS reports on taxation from 1978-2009

-CRS reports on bankruptcy from 1984-2009